Federal Officials Monitored Sikh Temple Shooter Before The Shooting But Legally Couldn't Do Anything About It

The man who opened fire on a Milwaukee-area Sikh temple and
killed six before being shot to death by police had been on
federal investigators' radar before the shooting but federal law
prohibited the unnamed agency from conducting an extensive
investigation.

Law enforcement began looking at Wade Michael Page because of his
ties to right-wing extremists as well as the
possibility he was funding a domestic terrorist group, The Los
Angeles Times reported Monday.

However, federal law prohibits agencies such as the FBI from
collecting information on U.S. citizens if they aren't suspected
of committing a crime.

Page would have had to threaten violence or broken a federal law
while trying to advance an agenda before the FBI could legally
open a case against him.

“This happens a lot where somebody will come to your attention
and you do a preliminary investigation of the guy’s activities
and nothing pans out,” retired FBI agent Bob Blitzer told the
Times. “Some private groups collect a lot of information, but
they can. Law enforcement can’t.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center has been tracking Page since
2000. In 2010, Page gave an interview to alleged white
supremacist website Label56, where he talked about his skinhead
band End Apathy.

There is also speculation Page belonged to white supremacist
group the Hammerskins, the Times reported.